The art of public speaking

“It is imperative for lawyers to have confidence and speak with power in public places, including courtrooms and boardrooms. The most important skill required of a lawyer is oral communication… it is possible to outsource or delegate every other skill, effective oral communication cannot be outsourced or delegated…” – Ubong Essien The art of public […]

“It is imperative for lawyers to have confidence and speak with power in public places, including courtrooms and boardrooms. The most important skill required of a lawyer is oral communication… it is possible to outsource or delegate every other skill, effective oral communication cannot be outsourced or delegated…” – Ubong Essien

The art of public speaking is the ability to express an opinion in a gathering of more than two people, with the comportment of passing your message to the listening audience. Public speaking can be considered as an art because many individuals do not have the confidence to stand and address a crowd, some get so tense that they freeze, others shake constantly that the listener is not able to hear the words spoken, or understand the message being conveyed.

Apart from a certain few born advocates talented with the poise and confidence to speak to a live audience, the art of public speaking can be mastered with learning, practice and consistency. The first step is to overcome the fear of ‘what would people think’, and actually go ahead to express your opinion.

Coming back to the legal profession, advocacy is considered an important skill in the purse of a successful lawyer; a good lawyer must be able to communicate effectively to clients, colleagues, the courts and the society at large, it is incumbent that when one hears a lawyer speak, his command of English ought to distinguish him from the pack. A good advocate is not always a good public speaker, but a good public speaker must be a good advocate.

Thus, for a lawyer to stand out from his/her peers, one must develop and master the art of public speaking. I remember back then in Nigerian Law School, Lagos Campus, when ‘Ijesha pass the mic’ was the most dreaded statement in our lecture halls; only a few enjoyed using the mic, while majority didn’t want the mic to get to them. What many law students failed to understand is that such acts by our lecturers back then was aimed at building confidence in public speaking, for, if a student can be confident enough to speak in the face of over one thousand fellow students, then a few number of audience would be easy to address.

I stand to be corrected, but I doubt if one can successfully be a lawyer without addressing an audience of whatever form, be it a gathering of five, hundred, thousands etc. And if it is mandatory as a lawyer to address a public gathering as few as once in your professional career, why not learn and master the art of public speaking?

Addressing a judge in an open court can also be considered as public speaking, and some lawyers still find it difficult to appear alone, preferring only to stand back for their names to be announced, but lack the courage to move an application before the open court.

As earlier stated, the first step is to overcome the spirit of fear when an intended speaker decides to speak in public, once fear exists on how the listeners will react, or if some listeners will agree or not with what is about to be said could lead to being jittery when one finally decides to speak. In essence, run your opinions with your inner thought process, cross the t’s and dot the i’s, and once confident about what to say, say it.

No doubt one needs to have oratory skills to persuade people, but how do we get to the point where our message is passed effectively without practice of the art. It is not enough to possess other legal skills like research, and drafting if one cannot voice out his/her opinion eloquently to the public.

Public speaking is an art, not an act and so mastery can only come from practice. The idea is to be confident with your thought process, be comfortable with your audience, and understand that all individuals make mistake, so feel comfortable with your audience, and then speak freely.

Once you find your confidence to address a small gathering of 10, you would feel comfortable addressing a crowd of hundred, and gradually thousands. All it takes is to overcome the fear, as the death of fear is certain if you do that which you fear.

Godspeed!

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